Homeowners continue to benefit from general price stability for the collection of household waste. This is according to the latest market analysis carried out by the Price Monitoring Group. Prices charged to homeowners are broadly in line with a month earlier despite the introduction of some new 'Green Bin' collection charges coming into force.

The Price Monitoring Group, which was established to monitor the cost of residential household waste collection during the phasing out of Flat Rate services, monitors 26 service providers. This comprises 19 individual companies with several of those being monitored in more than one area.

The April market analysis reveals there is no single or uniform price arrangement across all of the service providers monitored; some service providers offer a variety of different waste collection packages to homeowners. In fact, during the April analysis, service provider P added three new services and dropped one. Service providers D and E also added services while service provider M dropped one service from a month earlier. Because of this, when the total number of waste collection providers and the various collection packages are combined, a total of 45 different service offers were identified and verified in April, this is six more than the previous month and equal to the number identified in the December monitoring (a full breakdown of all service offers is included with this report).

Range of pricing models available

Many waste collection companies offer a range of price plans to their customers. However, as has been noted previously, the Group continues to observe how some waste collection company office staff struggle to effectively and efficiently fully disclose prices when contacted by phone. This continues to be a concern to the Group. Lack of clarity from service provider employees can restrict homeowners from quickly or accurately comparing the market for the best prices.

In all situations where office staff may have been slow or hesitant to provide prices over the phone, the Group has used company websites to confirm prices. However, the Group is very aware that not all homeowners will have internet access, or are comfortable with this mode of comparison. Because of this, the Group considers it vital all waste collection companies take appropriate measures to ensure all staff that responsible for answering price request calls or updating their websites are adequately trained to provide this information quickly.

Complex Price Models

Across all of the companies monitored, there are 9 different price models. This is the same number recorded in March and one less than what was recorded in Series 1.

There has been an increase in the number of companies offering what continues to be the most popular price model across all 26 service providers; Service Charge (incl weight allowance) plus per KG Charge for Excess above Allowance. 20 of the 26 service providers now offer this price model, an increase of 4 from the March analysis.

Flat-rate services decrease to 2

The number of service providers still offering flat-rate collection services decreased by 1, from 3 to just 2.

Some upward price movements

While the overall trend in prices is stable, the Group has noted some price increases in Series 8 when compared to the previous month, those include:

The purpose of the group is to gain a broad understanding of whether or not prices are fluctuating and if they are, by how much. The Price Monitoring Group was not established to provide a price comparison service; this would require whole-of-market monitoring of the sixty plus household waste collectors in the country across the different areas they provide a service, accordingly, the outcomes are published on an anonymised basis.

Composition of the PMG

The group comprises representatives from:

Waste Policy & Resource Efficiency Division

An economist from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment,

Please note this email has been put in place to facilitate the submission of relevant price information to the Group. The Group will consider all submission that can help inform it in respect to prices residential users pay for the collection of residential waste. Unfortunately, the Group is not in a position to respond to individual submissions at this time.

Press Release Documents

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